Exploring Vulnerabilities: How prepared is your community for climate change?

About this project and survey

Purpose

Thanks for taking the time to participate in this survey. The purpose of the Exploring Vulnerabilities project is to assess how prepared communities are for climate change, identify gaps, and suggest how these gaps could be addressed.

Through this survey we are seeking the help of people working in the health and social services sector to try to find out about the ability of vulnerable communities to cope with or prepare for climate impacts, and what could be done to help them prepare or become more resilient.

What kind of impacts are we talking about?

Melbourne is getting hotter and drier. Bushfire season is getting longer. Storms, heatwaves and other extreme weather events are happening more often. This has both direct and indirect impacts on the community, and vulnerable communities tend be hit 'first and worst'.

In this survey, direct impacts are climate impacts that affect people immediately, such as a thunderstorm ashthma event affect respiratory health, or a flood damaging people's houses.

Indirect impacts are the indirect impacts of both shocks and longer term changes, such as droughts affecting the cost of fresh produce and exacerbating food insecurity or violence following disasters.

Your input

We acknowledge that nobody has perfect knowledge of any community, but we also know that workers in this sector have insights into the communities they work with. We appreciate any insights and information you are able to share. Feel free to share any limitations on knowledge, and to skip over any questions you don't feel equipped to answer. You can also let us know if you only want to comment on one or more specific communities because that's where your knowledge is.

Who are we?

The Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action is a network operating across nine local government areas in northern metropolitan Melbourne. We've been contracted by the Department of Environment, Water, Land and Planning to complete the Exploring Vulnerabilities project to feed into the Regional Adaptation Strategy for all of metropolitan Melbourne.

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* 1. What is the name of your organisation? (Or specify which type of organisation if your prefer.)

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* 2. What part of Melbourne does your organisation operate in?

Northern suburbs

Western suburbs

Eastern suburbs

South eastern suburbs

Outer eastern suburbs

Inner city suburbs

Outside Melbourne / Other (please specify)

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* 3. What is your role?

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* 4. Which at-risk communities does your organisation work with?

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities

Children and single parents

Financially disadvantaged people

Older people

People who are homeless or have insecure housing

People with disabilities

People with drug and alcohol issues

Public and social housing tenants

Other (please specify)

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* 5. Which at-risk communities do you personally work with?

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities

Children and single parents

Financially disadvantaged people

Older people

People who are homeless or have insecure housing

People with disabilities

People with drug and alcohol issues

Public and social housing tenants

Refugees, newly arrived migrants

People with low proficiency in English

Other (please specify)

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* 6. Which direct impacts are most important for the communities you work with? If this varies across communities, please explain further in the comments box.

Heatwaves and more hot days

Smoke and decreased air quality

Storms, floods and other extreme weather events

Other (please specify) / Comments

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* 7. Which indirect impacts are most important for the communities you work with? If this varies across communities, please explain further in the comments box.

Increased heat stress

Exacerbated physical health conditions

Exacerbated mental health conditions

More need for crisis accommodation and services

Increased food insecurity

Increased family violence

Increased use of alcohol and drugs

Rising costs of heating and cooling

Power outages

Difficulty with evacuation

Increased violence on the streets

Comments

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* 8. Do you think that the community is aware of and prepared for these changes?

Not aware

Aware but not prepared

Prepared

Other / comments

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* 9. Are the communities you work with able to cope with these impacts? If this varies across communities, please explain further in the comments box. Please also feel free to describe in the comments box what "not coping" or "struggling" looks like in your community.

	Not able to cope at all	Will struggle but will cope	Fairly resilient to this kind of change
Increased heat stress	Increased heat stress Not able to cope at all	Increased heat stress Will struggle but will cope	Increased heat stress Fairly resilient to this kind of change
Exacerbated physical health conditions	Exacerbated physical health conditions Not able to cope at all	Exacerbated physical health conditions Will struggle but will cope	Exacerbated physical health conditions Fairly resilient to this kind of change
Exacerbated mental health conditions	Exacerbated mental health conditions Not able to cope at all	Exacerbated mental health conditions Will struggle but will cope	Exacerbated mental health conditions Fairly resilient to this kind of change
Increased family violence	Increased family violence Not able to cope at all	Increased family violence Will struggle but will cope	Increased family violence Fairly resilient to this kind of change
More need for crisis accommodation and services	More need for crisis accommodation and services Not able to cope at all	More need for crisis accommodation and services Will struggle but will cope	More need for crisis accommodation and services Fairly resilient to this kind of change
Increased drug and alcohol use	Increased drug and alcohol use Not able to cope at all	Increased drug and alcohol use Will struggle but will cope	Increased drug and alcohol use Fairly resilient to this kind of change
Increased food insecurity	Increased food insecurity Not able to cope at all	Increased food insecurity Will struggle but will cope	Increased food insecurity Fairly resilient to this kind of change

Other / Comments

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* 10. How do you see these impacts interacting with a Covid Safe summer?

Difficulty accessing or social distancing in cooler places

Less ability to leave the house to get cool

Decreased support networks

Impacted services

Other (please specify)

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* 11. Do you have any ideas about what might help these communities to prepare for or become more resilient to these kinds of impacts?

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* 12. Do you have any ideas about what government and/or non-government organisations could do to help these communities to prepare for or become more resilient to these kinds of impacts?

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* 13. Anything else you want to let us know?

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* 14. We will be using the results of this survey as an input to prepare some workshops in February. If you are interested in future workshops on this topic, please leave your email address here.

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* 15. We are working with several organisations who are working on similar initiatives and may also offer workshops in future. Are you happy for us to pass on your email to them so they can let you know about upcoming training?

Yes

No - only interested in the February workshops hosted by NAGA